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Author:

Anderson
O’Donnell lives in Connecticut with his wife and son. Kingdom is his debut novel.

Description:

Set in a
possible North American near-future at two main locations. Tibor City, a gritty
metropolis where anything is available if you have enough money and life is
unbearable if you don’t, and the New Mexico desert where Morrison Biotech
pollutes the air and ground as it bio-engineers products, and where, in secret
underground laboratories, project Exodus is run, with the objective to clone a
perfect president for North America.

Appraisal:

Some
aspects of this novel are stellar. Particularly the descriptions of Tibor City.
I could feel the grit catching in the corners of my eyes. I could see the fumes
and smoke. I felt the pulsing music in the exclusive nightclubs where Dylan,
our twenty-something protagonist hung out, smoked hash, snorted coke, and
mingled with the ‘beautiful people.’ As the author builds and then takes us
though this future world, he fills the pages with vivid images and profound,
thought-provoking social and political commentary. I was solidly in the ‘sold
and convinced’ camp regarding Tibor City and the socio-economic environment
presented to me.

The story
follows two primary threads: Dylan, son of a recent presidential candidate who
committed suicide, and Campbell, who founded the biotech corporation along with
his partner Morrison. When Campbell realizes (too late) what project Exodus is
all about he bails on the corporation, and, in the main, on life as well.

Dylan is
well drawn. The process by which he learns the truth about his father’s
suicide, and indeed about the very nature of his father, is well managed and
compelling.

Campbell
was always distant to me. His life is saved by an underground order of Monks,
who turn out to be scientists trying to identify the human soul through
technological examination. This ‘soul’ resides in a specific gene, lacking in the
cloned humans produced by Morrison Bio. For me, this concept was ill defined. I
found it hard to root for Campbell, because I didn’t really know what he wanted
to achieve. Morrison, the evil, all-powerful corporate baddie was stereotypically
bent on achieving his aims regardless of costs, but his aims were also unclear.
I knew what Morrison wanted to achieve, but I never really understood why.

I read
every word, nothing skimmed, which is a credit to the writing quality because
there were long narrative descriptions within the story, but the imagery and
concepts were always strong enough to hold my interest.

Overall, a
fascinating read--hard to believe this is a debut novel.

FYI:

There is
one gratuitously violent scene that I didn’t enjoy. And one gratuitous sex
scene which I enjoyed very much. So I’ll say they offset.

The author of each of these books has indicated their intent to schedule these books for a free day for the Kindle versions today on Amazon. Sometimes plans change or mistakes happen, so be sure to verify the price before hitting that "buy me" button.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

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Author:

Details
about the author are non-existent. His or her small publisher has a website,
but even it has very little content beyond descriptions of their books.

Description:

“Meet Anita
Henry, a hard-working, single mom trying to launch her own business after
losing her job. The only problem is a nasty lawsuit charging her with stealing
secrets from her ex-employer.

Corporate
espionage? Please. Her single greatest offense was a fashion felony. But when a
shady court ruling forces Anita to cease and desist, she’s determined to set
things right.

Her plan
involves launching the hippest night spot in town, but can she work her scheme
while juggling her brother the musician, who likes her couch just a little too
much; his manager, who’s prone to some sketchy accounting practices; an
ex-husband who can’t seem to remember those child support payments; and an old
flame who wouldn't mind heating things up again?”

Appraisal:

Mom Con and I got off to a rough start due
to my inner armchair lawyer, which questioned the premise that kicked the whole
thing off. Specifically the protagonist, Anita, and her two sidekicks, Chris
and Renée, had developed a new product for the company where they worked. When
the three were all let go, they decided to start their own company to develop
the product and were sued by their former employer. Although the three had
spent weeks “determining the feasibility of bringing the product to market,
much of the time off the clock,” it was clear that legally, they didn’t have a
leg to stand on. That their (now former) employer might have played fast and
loose with the rules to win the case wasn’t credible, because he didn’t have
to, the law was on his side.

In spite of
this shaky foundation, I loved the three main characters and hated (or at least
strongly disliked) their ex-boss, so I managed to suspend my disbelief and
start pulling for them in their attempt to get even. He’d still done plenty to
deserve it. The story of how they extract their revenge was a fun one (think The Sting or some other con game like
that) and, with the exception of the too frequent typos and other proofing
misses I kept tripping over, it was a fun, well-written, and relatively quick
read. Readers who don’t have an inner editor or lawyer aching to get out should
eat this one up.

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Author:

“Mary Fan
lives in New Jersey, where she is currently working in financial marketing. She
has also resided in North Carolina, Hong Kong, and Beijing, China. She has been
an avid reader for as long as she can remember and especially enjoys the
infinite possibilities and out-of-this-world experiences of science fiction and
fantasy.

Mary has a
B.A. in Music, specializing in composition, from Princeton University and
enjoys writing songs as much as writing stories. She also enjoys kickboxing,
opera singing, and exploring new things—she’ll try almost anything once.”

“Jane Colt
is just another recent college grad working as an Interstellar Confederation
office drone—until the day she witnesses her best friend, Adam, kidnapped by a
mysterious criminal. An extensive cover-up thwarts her efforts to report the
crime, shaking her trust in the authorities. Only her older brother, Devin,
believes her account.

Devin hopes
to leave behind his violent past and find peace in a marriage to the woman he
loves. That hope shatters when he discovers a shocking secret that causes him
to be framed for murder.

With little
more than a cocky attitude, Jane leaves everything she knows to flee with
Devin, racing through the most lawless corners of the galaxy as she searches
for Adam and proof of her brother’s innocence. Her journey uncovers truths
about both of them, leading her to wonder just how much she doesn’t know about
the people she loves.”

Appraisal:

In order
for science fiction to work for me the characters and the conflicts the
characters have to overcome has to be something I can relate to. Technology
that (if it ever really happens) is too far in the future to seem possible does
nothing for me. Cities on other planets and space ships traveling through space
don’t either. If it feels like that’s the majority of what the book has to
offer, I’ll take a pass.

Although Artificial Absolutes has plenty of space
travel and the Earth is only a distant memory, it also has some engaging
characters and a story with conflicts and struggles that are universal to all
humans across time. The characters experience familial clashes and learn
lessons about being true to yourself. There are questions about faith, reality,
and resolving conflicts between the two. Given the right characters and story,
the setting doesn’t matter. That’s the way I felt about Artificial Absolutes.

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Author:

Sariah
Wilson lives in Utah
and is a fervent believer in happily ever afters, which is why she writes
romance. She grew up in Southern California and graduated with a degree in history
from BrighamYoungUniversity.

A
contemporary view from the ugly stepsister set during her senior year of high
school. Mattie Lowe is a rebellious teenager who feels like all the odds are
stacked against her. This story is homage to the movies Pretty
in Pink, The Breakfast Club, and Sixteen Candles.

Appraisal:

This twisted
fairy-tale is nothing like I expected and I was thoroughly delighted. Sariah
Wilson has developed Matilda into the quintessential, slightly rebellious,teenager who feels like things will never work out
for her. The story starts with a list of grievances that give us a feel for
this misunderstood character and the people in her life. I had to giggle at her
voice; it’s fresh, quirky, sarcastic, and witty.

Mattie is intelligent but
insecure and I loved the way she decided to start making changes in her life.
During her journey, her perspective changes to open her eyes to the realities
surrounding her. This story has a nice pace and it kept me turning the pages
late into the night. I became totally invested in Mattie finding her happily
ever after, bless her heart, she did not believe she was worth it. There are a
few valuable lessons to be learned from this story and therefore, I think this
book would especially be enjoyed by preteens and young adults, although I fit
into neither of those categories and I loved it.

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Author:

Author
Chris James lives with his family in Warsaw, Poland (although I swear I’ve read
he’s a native of the UK, I’m too lazy to verify that.) In addition to this
novel, he’s written its sequel and a comedy/picture book, The B Team and Me. James is also a regular contributor to the Indies Unlimited website.

“Lucas
Hunter has the best job in the universe: exploring and investigating
alternative realities. But from the first trip he realises something is wrong.
A strange American is chasing Lucas across the continuum; from Soviet Warsaw in
1944, to Muslim-dominated Europe in 1911, and on to Nazi-controlled England in
1967. Lucas soon understands that his superiors have betrayed him, and the
world is on the brink of the first trans-dimensional war.”

Appraisal:

Science
Fiction and I have a strange relationship. If asked, I’ll say I’m not much of a
sci-fi guy, but when I think of the genre what I picture is the space opera subgenre, full of futuristic
space battles, advanced technologies, and life spent entirely in space: Star Trek or Star Wars like stories. Yet I’ve still read some of these and if
the characters appeal to me I’ll enjoy them, even though they’ll never be my
first choice for reading material.

Obviously,
my concept of Science Fiction is way too limited. The truth is, many books I
read and enjoy have some Science Fiction elements, although not always enough
to fall into the genre. M.P. McDonald’s Mark
Taylor series is a good example. What that series and other books which are
clearly Science Fiction (but not space opera) that I enjoy have in common is
some kind of question that starts, “what if?” In the example of the Mark Taylor
books it is, “what if someone had a camera that could show a future negative
event, and the camera owner could potentially prevent it from happening?” The Dimension Researcher explores the
question of “what if there were alternate realities, and we were able to
explore them,” and a second question, “what could go wrong?”

The concept
of alternate realities or other dimensions is a common idea in Science Fiction.
I’ve encountered it before and expect most sci-fi readers have. In case you’re
not familiar with it, the concept is that each time someone makes a decision an
alternate reality is created for each of the possible outcomes. The Dimension Researcher can explore the
differences between these realities and how alternate decisions, both large and
small, could affect the course of the world. It’s an interesting mind exercise.
I think any book that makes you think is a good one, and this one did that for
me.

But no
story is going to work without good characters and, when the story takes place
in a world that is changed from our own, in describing and defining that world
so it becomes real for the reader – often called world building. It is in these areas where James excelled. The main
characters were well-formed with enough detail to feel as if you understood
their personalities, both the good and the not. And the world where most of the
story took place, a gigantic building with many different areas, each with
distinct functions, was described very well. Enough so I could picture it, put
myself in the story, and imagine the setting.

The Dimension Researcher is a good read for both sci-fi fans
and those who, like me, could benefit from expanding their reading diet as a
reminder that the genre is much broader than they think.

Joseph
Chase, world renowned scholar and expert on George Washington, is murdered.
Within moments, his killers are blown up in their getaway car.

Joseph’s
nephew, Chase, receives a mysterious letter from his uncle days after the
murder. The contents set him on the trail of a secret society who will do
anything to keep their secret hidden.

Appraisal:

This was a
reasonable story with several good points, however there were a number of
negatives. On the positive side it was a real page turner, the characters were okay
and the scene setting not bad.

But when I
started A Patriot’s Betrayal I
already had a problem. The premise is that George Washington hid a series of
clues to a momentous document two hundred years ago that no one until now had
been able to find. Yet two people, Parker and his ex-girlfriend Erika (who just
happens to be a brilliant historian herself), are able to unwind it whilst
being chased by a shadowy group. Somewhat of a stretch for me.

On a
technical perspective there was an over use of tell rather than show. A couple
of examples:

With a groan he collapsed onto the
desk, blood pooling from his mouth and nose onto the table. The phone fell from
his lifeless hands. The gunman moved to the desk, but there was no need. The
man was clearly dead. He checked for a pulse and found none.

It’s pretty
obvious the guy is dead. Why say so repeatedly? And:

Cold brew in hand, he sat down and
took a long pull from the ice-cold bottle, savoring the lager’s crisp taste as
it washed down his throat.

These
examples also demonstrate the prose was on the descriptive side with many words
used where few would suffice just as well, if not better. There are multiple
descriptions throughout the book about the colour and texture of blood. Crimson
one minute, sticky and black the next. An example where pretty much every item
in a setting is described:

Recessed lighting cast a soft glow
over the deep red paint of the room, reflecting off the gleaming hardwood
floor.

Did it
really add anything to the tale?

Then, the
single largest issue with this novel, the repetition of the same events within
scenes from all the perspectives of the characters involved – words on paper
for the sake of it. A number of examples. Parker’s father died in the past by
falling out of a tree. We’re told about the event three separate times, almost
word for word. Parker and then Erika are separately interviewed by the police
and a government agent. The interviews and descriptions are pretty much
identical, we don’t learn anything we didn’t already know.

There’s a
shooting in a flat. We see the action in entirety from Parker’s perspective, he
escapes and someone is shot in the process. Then we see it from one of the
attacker’s viewpoint, then all over again from a government agent’s. We already
know what’s happened, why go over it again and again? The worst element is the
tension is relieved the first time around because we know Parker escapes. The rest is just explanation of the run up. We
don’t need to go over the whole shooting match two more times. Unfortunately, this
continues to happen until about half-way through when the agent joins Parker
and Erika.

I didn’t
really take to the characters. Parker just seems too lucky to repeatedly
survive all the attacks on his life. The secret society really is just a society
that has a secret and some money to pay people to shoot others up. It’s not
quite as shadowy as first made out and their henchmen are somewhat incompetent.
The leader of the society is only concerned that if the secret comes out it
will affect his finances to the tune of $20B (also repeated several times).

All of that
said, the rating for A Patriot’s Betrayal
initially hovered around two stars, however the second half of the book pushed
it up. This was once the scenes merged and the multiple perspectives decreased.
I’d probably pick up Clawson’s books in the future, just to see if some of the
above had been dealt with.

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Author:

Jennifer Moorman was born and raised in Tifton,
Georgia and now lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
She majored in English/Creative writing at MTSU. I picked this up from her
website. “My life is a
writer’s journey through the ramblings in my cluttered mind, the stories
demanding to be written, my travels along forest pathways, and my search for
the ever-elusive unicorn and the end of the rainbow.”

“Moorman weaves the tale of a young woman whose grandmother’s
secret—and the ancestry of her grandfather—are about to change her life
forever.”

Anna O’Brien has inherited more than her grandmother’s talent
for baking and her bakery. When her boyfriend of two years accepts an
architectural job with a firm in NapaValley, with no plans to
include her, she is forced to face an uncertain future. One late night in the
bakery with her best friend, Lily, they have a little too much to drink and
follow a mysterious recipe of her grandmothers with a secret ingredient. The
next morning she wakes up to find Elijah, a handsome stranger, baking donuts in
her kitchen and things rocket out of control.

Appraisal:

I found
this book to be a magically enchanting tale that weaves in just enough reality
to suspend my disbelief. Anna has always lived her life to please others, but
when Baron decides to take a job across the country, she decides she needs to
take charge of her own life and follow her heart. Anna has internal and
external forces pulling her in different directions; she knows she wants to
continue making pastries, but perhaps not in her hometown of Mystic Water.
There is a perfect place by the sea and an offer has been made, but to move
there will disappoint the hometown folks, her mother, and her friends. The
relationship with Baron is also unsettled, they were both comfortable with each
other and neither is ready to give it up, although they know it is over. Anna’s
biggest problem is she is not ready to believe this mysterious force that draws
her to Elisha is real, she doesn’t trust the magic. When her friend, Tessa,
falls head over heels for Elisha, Anna tries to take a step back. This story
explores friendship, forgiveness, and the possibilities of following your own
heart. When Elisha, her dough-boy, starts growing into his own person things
get very complicated and there are a couple of unexpected twists. The dialogue
reads true and humor is expertly woven into this heartwarming journey.

I couldn’t
help but love Jennifer Moorman’s prose, each of her characters and places had distinctive
smells that Anna identified with them. Her mother smelled of ripe cherries or
rotten cherries depending on her mood, her father like green pine or freshly
cut grass. Elisha smelled of rosemary, cinnamon, spicy chocolate and melted
sugar. How could you not love that?

This is one of those stories I had trouble assigning a genre
to, so I went back to Donna Fasano’s guest post defining romance and chick-lit.
I decided it was chick-lit with a strong romantic element, although I do not
claim to be an expert on this subject. But I will tell you, if you like foodie
fiction or chick-lit you will love this story.

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Author:

Jesse Sublett is an author, musician and artist. He lives in
Austin, Texas with his family. Jesse formed a band called The Skunks in the
70’s which still plays today. His works of fiction have been widely published.

It is the
near future, the world as we know it has utterly changed. The social and
digital infrastructure has been mainly wiped out by a terrorist plot and a
coup. Humanity is nearing its end. Enter Hank Zzybynx, a damaged war vet
private eye and contract killer with a job to fulfill…

Appraisal:

If there
was a continuum with ‘unusual’ at one end and ‘downright weird’ at the other
then Grave Digger Blues would tend
very heavily towards the latter. It follows two characters, the aforementioned
Hank and the Blues Cat, a musician, as they tour across the shattered world
with quite different missions.

I still
don’t know what to make of this book. It’s the ‘lite’ edition, the other
populated with photographs and other supporting elements apparently. Even this
edition has a sprinkling of songs throughout. In other words, it’s not your
average book.

The
narrative proved very confusing and meandering at times with regular breaks,
shifts in time and place and bizarre occurrences that seemed only connected by
the fact that the world has gone mad. It even made this review difficult to
construct.

I quite
liked Hank as a character, he’s hired to track someone down and he does this
relentlessly. The guy never forgets a face but the army messed with his head,
erasing his memories in particular when he left the army. Blues Cat I struggled
with, I wasn’t quite sure of the point of him (but again the whole thing is
confusing). There are a number of bizarrely morphed characters from real life
like Dick Cheney (who now wears drag and talks to himself) and Marilyn Monroe.

Here’s an
example of the writing. Hank is in a bar with another character called The
Artist:

The level of noise in the room
increased sharply again, for no apparent reason, like a cat mewling in his
sleep. The Artist found a friend, then another, then another. The bass walked a
crooked trail and Hank saw himself driving a car down a curving mountain road
at night. Marilyn snuggled up to him.

A bear came out of the woods and
blocked the road. Hank hit it with the car. Had to back up and take a run at it
three times before the beast finally lay down.

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Author:

Monica
Shaughnessy has a degree in marketing and worked for a variety of companies,
while they let her be creative they didn’t allow for much personal expression.
When she became a mother she decided to stay home and create what she loved
most. While she primarily writes children’s fiction, she says she is going to
write an adult novel that promises to be the love child of Tim Burton.

Sixteen-year-old Cassie Vogler, who describes herself as an
uber-nerd, is convinced she’ll spend junior year dateless until Jake Gunderson
moves to her tiny West Texas town. Cassie is
the daughter of Dr. Theodore Vogler, an esteemed astronomer that works at the
McDougal Observatory in the Davis Mountains high above their town, Fort
Nesbitt. Cassie has been raised to evaluate using science and logic. Jake
Gunderson has been raised in an extremely strict religious cult and is being
groomed for ascension to become cult leader. Logic and faith turns out to be a
caustic combination for these two star-crossed lovers.

Appraisal:

This is a strangely dark thought provoking story. It is
obvious that a lot of thought went into building the relationship between all
of the characters. I really liked Cassie’s relationship with her father and her
best friend Daniel, as well as some of her other classmates. Although these
were not as well defined or explored, their dialogue rang true. I appreciated
that Cassie’s naïveté also rang true for her age, she really felt like she
could save Jake by just separating him from this religious cult. I wish a
little more detail from Jake’s view point had been explored, I found his
position fascinating as he learned more about science and logic, but never
giving up on his faith. The plot is driven forward by some surprising twists in
this budding relationship between these two students of life. I also
appreciated the little bits of humor that were sprinkled into the story that
lightened the heavy subject matter.

FYI:

This book contains relatively mild offensive language,
although two F bombs are dropped.

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Author:

“Carla
Allen is an award-winning reporter for The Vanguard, a community newspaper in
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Some of her happiest moments have been at sea, including
working for a week banding lobsters on her cousin’s boat, the Scalded Witch;
sailing across the Gulf of Maine aboard an 80-foot ketch in the Yarmouth Cup
race; travelling from Yarmouth to Bar Harbor with Spike Hampson as part of his
riverboat odyssey; or simply paddling about the local harbour in her kayak.”

Description:

“How did a
giant shark caught in 2004 end up as an urban legend? The answer to that
question, as well as fascinating details about shark attacks around the world,
shark research, and much more can be found in Shark On Line. See these fearsome predators up close in a
collection of photos snapped by this award-winning journalist.”

Appraisal:

The blurb
for this said it was “an easy read and highly recommended for all ages.” Kids
love animals, birds, and fish, right? So I had The Princess, my nine year-old
granddaughter, read it before I did and give me her impressions. If I’d read it
first, I might not have assigned it to The Princess. Not because it was a hard
read (it may have stretched her reading skills a touch, but not all that much
and she felt it was of appropriate difficulty for her age and up). Nor because
there was anything she shouldn’t have been allowed to read. But because it
really isn’t going to be that great a read for someone who isn’t really into
sharks. Her verdict agreed, saying it would be good for someone “interested in
sharks” and she gave it a letter grade of C, the low score primarily because,
as she told me, “sharks died … I don’t like animals dying.”

The content
is a mishmash of original material with other material reprinted from articles
that appeared elsewhere, comments from the internet (about an urban legend revolving
around one of the largest sharks ever caught), and new material. At times, it
felt like it didn’t make up a coherent whole, with some subjects being
discussed in multiple sections from multiple perspectives or two chapters that
felt like a newspaper or magazine “round-up” article with different facts about
sharks, each getting a paragraph or two’s discussion. These chapters (the last
two, one on “Shark Attacks” and the other, reasonably called “Shark bits &
bites”) seemed to be there as much to pad the word count as any other reason.

In the
final analysis, The Princess was right: if you’re really interested in sharks,
you’ll like Shark On Line, and if
your interest isn’t that intense, you’ll probably still find some things of
interest. (I especially enjoyed the discussion of shark fin soup as well as the
section discussing a series of shark attacks in New Jersey that was said to have
inspired Peter Benchley’s book Jaws.)
The included pictures also add a lot and look good in black and white on an
eink Kindle, but much better on a color reader.

Format/Typo Issues:

No
significant issues proofing.

The font in
some sections randomly changed from regular to light gray and back.

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